Ken Adam: Rolls Royce

My ‘Das Ding’ is a white Rolls Royce Silver Cloud I convertible. One night, many years ago, I saw it in the window of a used car dealership near my house. The next day I went in to buy it but they told me: ‘you’re not the right person for this Rolls.’ And I said: ‘well, how do you know?’ Actually, the man who ran the business was very nice. He was an old ex-naval commander, and I was pretty young. He just thought it was not the right type of car for me – that I was more of ‘a sports car person’. Still I thought the Rolls was very pretty and so I bought it anyway. It cost something like £20,000, which I could afford – I can’t remember exactly how much.

I’ve always loved cars. I’ve had E type Jaguars and a Mercedes 540K. The Mercedes was super-charged which was fantastic even though it guzzled so much petrol, which was a problem after WWII because of the fuel rationing. I guess a two-door Rolls Royce convertible is something like their sports car version; or as close to a sports car a Rolls can get.

Until recently I used the Rolls more or less every day; for example to go to the swimming pool, a 15-minute drive from my house. Now I don’t really need it anymore so I keep it in the garage. I have only pleasant memories of my Rolls. I can’t remember that it ever let me down. I’ve used it all over Europe: I drove with it to Italy and Spain, to France, everywhere. It has travelled over 250,000 miles. But it never got me to Germany.